Diarrheal disease and its short- and long-term consequences cause significant morbidity in developing countries. Malnutrition and lack of physical and cognitive development has significant public health and economic consequences in resource-poor settings. The overall goal of this project is to enhance research and training activities in enteric infectious disease at the Christian Medical College, Vellore through an application for a Global Infectious Disease Research and Training program from the Fogarty International Center. We aim to establish training in enteric infectious diseases-related research, based on a longstanding and ongoing collaborative partnership between investigators at Tufts-New England Medical Center (T-NEMC)/Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) and our institution, Christian Medical College (CMC) Hospital, Vellore, India, which has a strong independent and collaborative medical research program. Enteric infectious diseases continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, and the goal of our collaborative research is to better understand, investigate, control and prevent diarrheal disease in south India. The project specifically aims to train scientists from southern India in a variety of disciplines necessary to identify and investigate gastrointestinal infections, to extend and reinforce research and training activities in enteric infectious disease at CMC, thereby developing and strengthening CMC as a regional center of excellence for enteric infectious disease research training. Centers of excellence will be developed in multiple disciplines to support and complement enteric infectious disease research in southern India, building on the knowledge and skills of returning trainees. [unreadable]